Tencent hires a new lobbyist on the Pentagon’s Chinese military list, four months after its old firms quit

By Staff Reporter

WASHINGTON — Four months after a new Pentagon contracting rule pushed four lobbying firms to drop Tencent, the Chinese technology giant has a new one. Platinum Advisors DC registered on Tuesday to lobby for Tencent America on “issues related to Section 1260” of the 2021 defense authorization act, according to its filing, the provision under which the Pentagon lists companies it calls Chinese military companies.

The registration, posted Oct. 20, gives an effective date of Sept. 10. The firm’s third-quarter report, filed the same day, shows $150,000 in income from Tencent for the period and names one lobbyist, Robert Smith, a former legislative director to Rep. Wes Watkins (R-Okla.). It says he contacted the House and Senate. Tencent Holdings, based in the Cayman Islands, is listed as the client’s 100% owner.

Why the old firms left

The Defense Department added Tencent to its Section 1260H list in January 2025, and Tencent remained on the updated list published June 8, 2026. Tencent has denied having military links. Being listed carries no sanctions by itself. But Section 851 of the fiscal 2025 defense authorization bars the Pentagon from contracting with a company that retains a lobbyist who also lobbies for a listed Chinese company. That provision took effect June 30, UPI reported, citing Bloomberg.

The filings show what happened next. In the first quarter, Tencent America had four outside firms on retainer. All four filed termination reports in late June:

Tencent’s own in-house lobbying spending also fell, to $590,000 in the third quarter from $1.67 million in the second and $1.61 million in the first. Its in-house reports list Section 1260 among their issues, along with an executive order on Chinese apps and the U.S. trade representative’s “Notorious Markets” report, and the third-quarter filing lists contacts with the House, the Senate and the Treasury Department.

The lobbyist who stayed

One outside lobbyist did not file a termination. John McEntee, a self-employed registrant in Newport Beach, Calif., registered for Tencent America effective July 23, 2025, on what his filing called an “erroneous trade restriction designation.” His first-quarter and second-quarter 2026 reports each show $225,000 in income and contacts with the Treasury Department, and list his former covered position as “Assistant to the President.” That was the rank John McEntee held as director of the White House personnel office in President Trump’s first term, Axios reported in 2020. The filings give his name as John D. McEntee II. No third-quarter report from him had been posted as of early Wednesday. Reports were due Tuesday.

Section 851 doesn’t bar anyone from lobbying for a listed company. In practice it makes firms choose between those clients and American companies that sell to the Pentagon, The Straits Times reported in June. Nothing in the filings indicates that Platinum Advisors or McEntee represents a Defense Department contractor, and the reports don’t say which lawmakers or aides were contacted.

What’s next

Alibaba, added to the list in June, sued the Defense Department in federal court seeking its removal, UPI reported. The registrations reviewed don’t say whether Tencent plans a legal challenge. Its new filing describes the issue only as Section 1260, which governs how companies are added to and removed from the list.

The Inquisitor sent requests for comment to the Pentagon, Platinum Advisors, Tencent, John McEntee and the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party on Wednesday afternoon, after this story was first published. This story will be updated with any responses.

Photo: Tencent Seafront Towers, the company’s headquarters in Shenzhen. Chainwit. / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.